Julian Edelman’s presence help fills leadership void for Patriots

Posted by Mike Florio on May 27, 2018, 2:17 PM EST

AP

With quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski not participating in Patriots OTAs, the young players don’t have the benefit of the examples they set and the leadership they bring. To balance that out, receiver Julian Edelman is back, after a torn ACL wiped out his entire 2017 season.

“Having him out there brings leadership to this team, he brings excitement to this team and he brings an aggressive nature to this team,” Patriots safety Duron Harman recently told Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald. “Having him out here makes the team better.”

“He’s definitely in the category of one of the most competitive players I had as a teammate,” former Patriots running back Kevin Faulk told Guregian. “Man, he was fearless. It goes back to a young age when someone tells you that you can’t do something. He’s had that chip on his shoulder for a long time.”

The Patriots will need that chip during the season, given that both Danny Amendola and Brandin Cooks are gone. For now, they’re benefiting from the leadership that Edelman brings, especially with two of the teams other great leaders not around to provide some of their own.

And that really is the biggest impact on the team from the absence of Brady and Gronkowski. Even though they arguably don’t need the reps, the young players who are learning how to do things the right way don’t have the ability to watch them and learn.

Julian is a great leader and player. What he can’t do is improve the young or new players timing with the starting QB. This is why it is important for the starting QB to be there as all other starting QB’s are, with one exception.

The fact is this is good for the younger players to have a time when the focus us on them. Once things start in earnest the focus will be on the guys that are going to be more immediately employed in the games and less on the guys that tor now are just future considerations. Its pretty established that Brady already knows how to play football sohaving him hogging up reps is really not the best use of them. Belichick really does need to think about this teams future so this is better for him having the newer guys getting the focus. He also has a lot of guys that he has upcoming decisions on,more than usual, so its better if the established guys stand down for these early stages. Its posdible Belichick asked Brady to stay back or at least told him that if he did come he was not going to see a lot of reps. Same with Gronk. He too can be assumed to already know how to play football. And for both of these guys (one old one injury prone) the additional injury risk is not a good thing.